I love experimenting with different pizza toppings. Given the chance, I would eat a spinach artichoke pizza over the trusty ol' pepperoni any day. My pizza making skills are still developing however, and I've yet to make the perfect pizza crust. My tastes lean toward a thinner crust with a little bit of chew, just the right amount of soft and crispy combined. I've been wanting to try Peter Reinhart's Napoletana pizza crust for a while now, and since I had some plums, onions and bacon just lounging away on my refrigerator shelf, I decided to try the crust with my plum pizza.

I previously posted this recipe, but used a crisped up tortilla crust for convenience. While the tortilla crust worked fine, it lacked the chew that a real pizza crust can add. The crust I used is an adapted version of Peter Reinart's by 101cookbooks, and the result was pretty good. My dough was a little too sticky, even though I weighed the flour exactly, so I think I will follow the original version of the dough, which calls for a half cup more of flour. I caramelized some red onions, cooked up some crispy bacon, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar sets it all off. This is a favorite of mine. Since there are a lot of tips and instructions for this crust recipe, I'll leave it for the pizza pro's to explain. You can find the adapted version of the Napoletana crust here.

Preheat oven to 500F for one hour. If using a pizza stone, put it in the oven now to warm up.

For the onions: In a large heavy bottom pan, add some olive oil to cover the bottom and about 1 teaspoon of butter. When butter is simmering, add the sliced onions and stir to coat. Cook on medium high for 5-10 mins, stirring occasionally. Lower heat and continue to cook for about another 5-10 mins, stirring just when the onions start to stick to the pan, but not burn. If you stir too often the onions will not brown. You can add some sugar if needed to help the onions caramelize. When the onions are a deep caramel color, remove from heat and set aside.

For the pizza: Place the prepared circle of pizza dough on the pizza stone or cookie sheet. You can use a pizza peel or the back of a cookie sheet, sprinkled with cornmeal, to transfer the pizza. Since I was making individual sized pizzas, I just used my hands to carefully place the pizza dough on my hot pizza stone. Top with mozzarella cheese, onions and crumbled bacon, then arrange the sliced plums on top. Sprinkle some dried oregano and sea salt over the top. Place pizza in oven and bake for about 5-7 minutes, until cheese is melted and golden. Remove from oven and let cool. If desired, garnish with some freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!

18 comments:

I love pizza, I can eat it all the time and I am with you I would pick a spinach artichoke pizza over pepperoni, hands down! This pizza sounds so delicious, I am very intrigued with the flavor combo, I bet it is wonderful!

Pairing the sweet plums with the salty bacon is inspired, truly! This looks like such a unique and tasty pizza recipe. Something that would make my mouth pop! I love experimenting with pizza recipes too...but mine don't often turn out as great as yours!

I've seen so many recipes lately for pizzas! So far, I think yours must be the best! The other one I really like is Mexican Pizza. What do you think? Thanks again for sharing this delicious pizza recipe!

I would have never thought of pairing plums and bacon. Your so creative and it looks so yummy! I would love this pizza, but my husband wants the traditional toppings. He won't even eat spinach on pizza:(

Hello! I just came upon your blog and must say that it just went into my blog folder.

This recipe looks so good that I must try it....along with several others I saw.

Here is a pizza crust recipe you may want to try. It is a copy cat from a pizza franchise here in Canada.

I can't remember now who gave it to me, but we really like it.

Hope you do too!

Charlie

Pizza Hut' Style Dough Mix

The secret ingredient here is baking powder. Extensive testing has revealed that baking powder plus yeast in a pizza dough yields a chewy, tender crust. Baking powder also produces a near-instant oven rise. Each batch makes 1 16-20 inch round pizza, or a 17 by 11 inch rectangle, or a variety of smaller, free form individual pizzas. 8 cups unbleached bread flour4 cups unbleached all purpose flour1 cup stone ground cornmeal1/4 cup sugar3 tablespoons salt3 tablespoons baking powder In a large bowl, whisk together bread flour, all purpose flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder very well. Store in well sealed plastic bags. Keeps 4 months. To make pizza dough:1 cup water1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons fast-rise yeast3 cups dough mix2 tablespoons olive oil If you like your pizza crisp, use the lesser amount of yeast. For a fluffier, bready-like pizza, use the larger amount (and do not roll out too thin). Depending on the yeast you choose (i.e. brands differ in performance as do fast or active dry varieties), the fermentation may vary somewhat. This dough can be kneaded by hand, in a mixer with a dough hook or in a bread machine (on dough cycle, following manufacturer instructions). For the mixer, place water in a bowl with yeast. Mix a moment and allow mixture to sit about five minutes, to allow yeast to expand. Add pizza mix and oil, then smooth and elastic on slow speed - about 5-7 minutes. Once dough is made, cover well with oiled plastic (or refrigerate) and allow to rest one hour. Deflate before proceeding

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